Category: meh

Bad, bad luck

Here is the latest update on the Precious.

Bottom line:
Precious is still pretty broken. I’m wicked frustrated. I raised my voice on the phone, nearly lost my temper. And I’m really glad I purchased a macbook pro.

Summary:

  1. 02-Nov-2006: Service Requested.
  2. 04-Nov-2006: Repair completed.
  3. 04-Nov-2006: Product shipped via DHL + link to track the shipment.
  4. 06-Nov-2006: DHL tracking page claims delivery was attempted at 9:40 am and intructs to call them.
  5. 07-Nov-2006: DHL had no delivery address (4tf?) so I gave it to them.
  6. 07-Nov-2006: DHL delivered my computer in the late afternoon.

What they did:

655-1112A DA TOSHIBA PLUTO 4200RPM 60GB HD KA201B
632-0282  FLX CKT ASSY,HDD,PB15"

What I did:

  1. Eagerly pressed the start button and crossed fingers and toes. Grey screen. Spinning gear. So far so good. And hmpf, the spinning gear stopped spinning 🙁
  2. Quickly checked again the documents that were in the box, found nothing suspicious, cringed when reading “We’re pleased we could repair your Apple product.”
  3. Called 800-APL-CARE
  4. Gave the woman on the phone all the case numbers I’ve been given since 18 October, the computer serial number, my name, the 2 repair references (dispatch numbers). She couldn’t find *any* history. This computer suddenly didn’t exist anymore. The case numbers were not in the system. That was insane. I was looking at the numerous notes I had taken over the last few weeks and I was thinking “there’s no way this happened only in my mind. I’m not “that” crazy”.
  5. She said that since the computer had been purchased in France I needed to call the French Apple Care hotline. I told her there was no way I was calling any other number but the one I had been calling for the past *three* weeks.
  6. Amy appeared in my office, I put the phone on speaker phone.
  7. Amy scribbled on a napkin something like “request to speak to a superior”, which I did.
  8. The woman put me on hold for a little bit, then asked me the office address, then typed like mad and said nothing till she put me through to a “product specialist”
  9. The product specialist made me repair the (brand new) disk (no repair needed), then made me boot the Precious in safe mode. We tested the airport card. Then the video card. All seemed to be worky.
  10. He then mentioned that the current situation seemed to be similar to last week’s. I asked him how he knew that and he said it was in the system. I said “oh, you found a history for this computer, eventually”.
  11. Then he made me restart. Woohoo! Precious restarted! They had installed Tiger. I created a user account. Then we restarted again. All good.
  12. He said he couldn’t explain what had been the issue and that he hoped it wouldn’t occur again. He said that if it occurs again, I should boot in safe mode and restart. He gave me a 3rd case number. He also gave me his e-mail address and he gave me his phone extension and explained how to contact him directly by phone.
  13. I put the Precious to sleep and prayed it would wake up.
  14. Once at home, it didn’t wake up 🙁
  15. And after I turned it off, I got the now familiar kernel panic window.
  16. I restarted in safe mode and tried to restart normally. More kernel panic window.
  17. I e-mailed Edward, the Powerbook product specialist.

He replied today and instructed me to start in safe mode, open the “Untitled” disk, go in the Library, find the Preferences folder and drag onto the desktop the folder named “SystemConfiguration”, and then, restart. He added to let him know if that worked so he could advise of the next steps. He finished with “If that doesn’t work, let me know anyway.”.

That didn’t work. After restarting I soon got the kernel panic screen. Edward will call me at the office tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile, Precious, my powerbook G4 is still borken…

Apple sent me a box to send it for repair and the next week it was in a worse state. This is mysterious, really. They changed the main logic board as well and the hard drive (and also the top case and they exchanged the battery). It doesn’t make sens that it wouldn’t boot at all.

More conversation with 800-APL-CARE and I was instructed to install an OS. Well, duh. There was one, said the installer. Anyway, I erased and installed, and did the software updates. The next step was to bring my backup on Precious. That was a mission for later at home, where my backup was. So I put the Precious to sleep.

And once at home, Precious didn’t wake from sleep.

More 800-APL-CARE action. I got to speak with a nice guy named Tim. We proceeded to some basic key-combo tests and as all of these failed, he instructed me to remove the apple-branded RAM and place my non-apple-branded one. No better. Precious wouldn’t boot. Tim made an appointment for me at the Genius Bar of the Cambridgeside Apple Store and gave me his e-mail address. I was to e-mail him if the genius couldn’t fix my computer.

There was nothing the genius could do. I was at the Genius Bar for more than an hour, repeatedly spacing out and thinking about the work I wasn’t doing, the frustration that my Precious was in such a bad state, the satisfaction that I purchased a replacement computer.

The genius decided to check-in Precious again for repair. I left the apple store and went on e-mailing Tim. He replied saying he’d call the genius, find out what he thinks the issue is, and get back to me with alternatives. I haven’t heard from him since.

Airport *security*?

[This post originally appeared in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull for several years.]

I missed my flight tonight. Now I’m writing this entry from the plane, which is a sure sign that things went well in the end. The flight was delayed. I was thankful for that. I have run all day, I was hardly ready to go at the scheduled time. I could have made it, it’s just that seeing the flight had a 25 minute delay, I left 25 minutes later than I intended.

Now the thing is that hold luggage should be checked in at the initially scheduled time. So the guy could not send my luggage in time. He asked if I had scissors or knives. Yes, I have a pair of scissors. I also had two smallish suitcases and a bag full of toiletries. The guy at the AF desk was almost willing to send me on the plane with all of my luggage. I said I couldn’t afford to lose them and would rather wait hours to be on a later flight than risk losing them to leave on time.

So he managed to book me on the next flight. It turned out I had to run because it was boarding pretty soon. He checked in my two suitcases and sent me with my bag full of toiletries and a pair of scissors. Sharp and pointy scissors. I thought the x-ray guys would stop me, look at me reproachfully, search for the scissors and take them from me.

Not at all. I also smuggled my entire collection of cigarette lighters and two matchbooks. That was for a Nice – Paris Orly flight. I don’t expect to smuggle these on the London Heathrow – Boston flight.

Update: I *did* smuggle them on the London – Boston flight too.

Less than impressed

I have been trying to close my accounts in a given bank since September 2005. I really thought that it was taken care of. Nope.

Mid-July I received a letter from them including the last letter I wrote them at the end of April. I had been advised at the local bank branch to enclose my credit card (that I had cut in halves, cutting right through the chip) and the blank checks too. So this letter is back. Just my letter, and theirs! Their letter says they could not close my account given that a life insurance account was still linked to it. They instructed that I meet with the local bank branch person. Again?!.

This life insurance account is closed of course. It took me months to close it and numerous phone calls and visits at the local branch of the bank.

I’m already bored writing this post! Let’s wrap it quickly. After sending my last letter, I followed the advice of my new bank and emptied the bank account I’m trying to close (after all the others linked accounts were eventually closed). Given that they just charged me the trimester fee for service (that I have stopped using back in September), my balance is now negative.

I wonder how long it will be till I’m definitely done with them. Also, it would be nice to get a refund of the service fees, all of them for the past 11 months.